Kosher and Jewish Life in Efrat

Efrat, or previously officially Efrata, is an Israeli settlement established in 1983 and a local council in the Judean Mountains of the West Bank. Efrat is located 11 kilometers (7.5 mi) south of Jerusalem, between Bethlehem and Hebron, 6.5 km (4 mi) east of the Green line, inside of the Security Barrier. With a population of around 9,100 residents, Efrat is the largest settlement in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc. The area in which Efrat was constructed was the site of a settlement during the Bronze Age. Archaeological excavations revealed a cemetery consisting of a tumulus built over a platform structure and more than twenty Bronze Age burial caves of the shaft tomb type, many of which had been reused over long stretches of time. Additionally, one of the three ancient aqueducts supplying Jerusalem, the Biyar aquedact (Hebrew: אָמָת הבִּיאָר), runs beneath Efrat.